Skip to main content

Seeing Machines teams with TK Holdings on driver-monitoring

Responding to potential product opportunities from numerous global automotive manufacturers, Australian company Seeing Machines is to partner with TK Holdings, the US subsidiary of Takata in a 15 year strategic alliance on driver monitoring technology.
September 3, 2014 Read time: 2 mins

Responding to potential product opportunities from numerous global automotive manufacturers, Australian company 7861 Seeing Machines is to partner with TK Holdings, the US subsidiary of Takata in a 15 year strategic alliance on driver monitoring technology.

The companies have been collaboratively developing driver monitoring technology for two years and Takata has recently secured a contract, said to be with General Motors, to deliver its first ever mass-manufactured implementation of a driver-monitoring system that will warn drivers of lapses in attention.

The Seeing Machines’ operator monitoring system is based on patented eye-tracking technology that uses sensing equipment that requires no re-calibration between different drivers, while tracking head alignment for potential distraction of the driver.

Seeing Machines’ automated fatigue monitoring systems, which monitor fatigue and alert both the operators and their employers when the system detects distraction, have already been implemented in 5551 Caterpillar mining machines and are being trialled by European coach and tour operator Royal Beuk.

“Eye and head tracking technology is the next step in automotive safety, which we expect to play a significant role in the reduction of one of the greatest causes of accidents: driver distraction,” said Ken Kroeger, CEO of Seeing Machines. “We strongly believe that the addition of driver monitoring to ADAS will deliver a significant improvement to the safety of drivers, passengers and pedestrians.”

Related Content

  • March 17, 2017
    Europe’s road safety gains have stagnated EU
    Europe will fail to meet its road death targets as enforcement budgets are slashed and drivers face an epidemic of distractions. The European Union will not achieve its aim of halving the number of people killed on its roads each year by 2020, delegates to Tispol’s (the organisation of European traffic police) annual conference in Manchester were told. “The target will be missed because there was only a 17% decrease in road fatalities across Europe between 2010 and 2015 when [the rate of reduction] should h
  • May 29, 2013
    Israel aspires to ITS-led future
    Shay Soffer, Chief Scientist with the Israel National Road Safety Authority, talks to Jason Barnes about his country’s current ITS outlook and how he sees this developing in the future. Israel ranks alongside countries such as the US and France in the road safety stakes, with an average 7.1 deaths per billion kilometres driven. But at that point the similarities end, as the country’s overriding issue is pedestrian safety. This is driven by several factors, including being a relatively small country where pe
  • December 21, 2015
    Measuring alertness to avert drowsy driver incidents
    Falling asleep at the wheel is the primary cause in thousands of deaths on American and other roads, with truck drivers the most at-risk group. David Crawford investigates measures to counter drowsy driving.
  • June 5, 2014
    TRW showcases driver assist systems
    TRW Automotive demonstrated its driver assist systems (DAS) and outlined expected trends in sensor technologies during the company's recent bi-annual Ride and Drive event at the Hockenheimring in Germany. According to Andrew Whydell, TRW Electronics’ director of product planning, DAS has and will continue to be a focal point for the automotive industry as governments and industry bodies strive to reduce road fatalities worldwide. For example, the European New Car Assessment Program (EuroNCAP) and the Ins